The Bishop Murder Case (1930)

The Bishop Murder Case (1930)

When a series of bizarre murders occur on the estate Professor Bertrand Dillard, District Attorney John Markham calls upon super-detective Philo Vance to solve the case.

The most interesting aspect of the otherwise static The Bishop Murder Case, is its mystery which plays out like a giallo thriller, with each murder tied into a Mother Goose nursery rhyme and performed by an unseen assailant, whose hands are covered with black gloves. Like many a giallo the psychological motivation behind the murders doesn't hold water at its denouement, but the mystery itself works on an intellectual puzzle level quite well.

Basil Rathbone would seem to make for a perfect Philo Vance, but he seems rather bored with the role, as if he didn't want to be stuck playing the same character for multiple movies (ahem!). Nonetheless Rathbone utilizes some of the visual deductive skills that would be put to use again a decade later. Clarence Geldart make a fine District Attorney John Markham (in one scene Vance and Geldart are sarcastically refered to as Holmes and Watson). James Donlan plays Sgt Ernest Heath as a complete idiot who would be more at home in an Abbott & Costello picture (incrediblely, and without apparent irony, Vance refers to him as the best sergeant in Manhattan under Markham).

Visually static and witten without a sense of humor (the Philo Vance S.S. Van Dine created, as an obnoxious intellectual dandy, is missing here) The Bishop Murder Case falls far short of the high point of the Philo Vance series, The Kennel Murder Case and as such would probably appeal most to fans of Philo Vance and/or students/fans of the dawn of talking pictures.

Lots of fun, even if slowly paced. Some truly nice camera work for 1929.

Yes, it's got some giallo-y aspects to it, but it actually reminds me more of a Krimis film, where we don't actually see the killer until the end. Very similar to THE AVENGER, in fact. For 1929, the ending of this film in the attic is quite chilling and graphic. Certainly a film ahead of its time.

Is this a true to life story movie? like Texas Chainsaw Massacre lots of thrilling scenes and i was really scared.
I love seeing this kind of movie, recently i heard about JOE STRUMMER movie gonna find it out soon what's all about.

I just dug a VHS tape of this out of a box - it'd been put away for at least 10 years...

I was struck again by what a good job Roland Young did as the upper class, snobbish, arrogant opponent of Rathbone's Vance, harmed only by the fact that he was so much shorter than Rathbone... I'd only ever seen him in And Then There Were None and Topper...

And I am really bummed. This was shown on TCM many years ago, with a Warren William and a Paul Lukas Vance to follow. I taped it via timer...and I must have only set it for the Rathbone Vance - I would really like to have seen Paul Lukas in the role...

Quote:And I am really bummed. This was shown on TCM many years ago, with a Warren William and a Paul Lukas Vance to follow. I taped it via timer...and I must have only set it for the Rathbone Vance - I would really like to have seen Paul Lukas in the role...

Well, you won't have to wait too long. Warners is releasing a collection of Vance DVDs next year. Being a Warren William fan, I really liked his turn in DRAGON MURDER CASE.